“Alicia, I’m up to my eyeballs in work and more keeps getting piled on. The last thing I need is to deal with a bunch of kids that have no clue how things get done at work but want to show me a better way of doing things. If it’s been good enough for us, it’ll be good enough for them, too.”

Bob was the CIO of a mid-size company and his tirade didn’t end there. It went on for another few minutes as he let out his frustration with managing the Millennials in his team. As a leadership expert who specializes in the Millennial generation and Next Generation leadership issues, I get to hear similar tirades from clients and in networking events. This happened to be a networking event and the minute Bob found out what I did, he started spewing.

It’s called F.U.D. Many years ago, I had a finance professor that used this acronym as he tried to explain market volatility. It stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Since then I’ve heard the term used in a variety of contexts and as Bob was talking, it kept flashing through my mind. Bob was locked in the status quo. Just the mere thought of having to deal with something unfamiliar during such tumultuous times made his head hurt.

Millennials represent the unfamiliar to Bob and many of today’s leaders and it puts them in FUD mode. Instead of trying to understand and embrace the Millennials and use the experience as an opportunity to change their thinking [Oh, Nooooo!], these leaders go into what I call the hunker mentality: they firmly grasp the old, conventional way of leading and seeing things and refuse to open their minds to the possibility of a new way. The more Millennials try to infuse a different perspective into the team or the workplace, the more hunkered down these leaders get in the old ways.

Here’s the problem with the hunker mentality: the more leaders in a company that prescribe to that mentality, the more at risk that company is to being left behind. Instead of seeing the Millennial FUD factor as a bad thing, smart leaders are using it as a wake-up call to find new ways of leading that begin to incorporate the unique perspectives the Millennials bring so they can attract, motivate and engage them going forward. Let’s not forget that the Millennials are the next generation leaders and the world they will lead is starkly different than the world that created the old, conventional ways. Let’s also not forget that as Baby Boomers, many of us won’t be retiring as planned. So if your strategy was to “get out of dodge” before the massive influx of Millennials hit your workplace, you may want to re-think that strategy, huh?

So are you in FUD-land? Go ahead. Take a chance. Acknowledge the FUD factor, get uncomfortable and try new things. It will ultimately better prepare you to lead our next generation leaders. Years ago, I was knee deep in FUD as I started hiring Millennials at work. I was determined to figure out why. I had to learn to get uncomfortable. I had to un-learn some leadership techniques that didn’t work anymore and upgrade some others to work in the 21st Century. Millennials need us to get uncomfortable so we can help them become the leaders they need to be in the new normal that is just beginning to unfold. They are counting on you to work through your particular FUDs and come out on the other side. The other side is not so bad. Really…